Part 6 – Orrin Woodward and the team leaders stand tall in the throws of war.

Quixtar’s Smack-Down and the Team stands strong

Quixtar’s next move was in response to the wave of resignations. Imagine Quixtar’s ownership saying, “Somehow, Orrin or Chris must have told all of those people what to do! Then their top leaders must have conveyed the message. Lets identify the top 10-20 biggest leaders and attack them too. We will sue them, drag both husbands and wives into court and interrogate them for hours in front of cameras and high-powered lawyers. Lets drain them all financially; bankrupt them if you have to. Lets take their computers and phones and scan for any communication with Orrin, Chris or their teams. Lets spend millions to find the answer to the question: who destroyed our “property” by telling all of “our” people quit. Bury them, regardless of the financial cost!” For the next few months, this was the Team’s ‘Valley Forge’ moment – and without their two top Commanders. A potential breaking point was imminent. How long will decisions of principle carry them? Even thought the spotlight was on Orrin and Chris, there were many other leaders who sacrificed greatly to protect others from attack during this time. These are all unsung heroes. They were brothers in a foxhole getting mortars dropped all around them. And certainly there were some financial casualties. That being said, nobody sacrificed more than Orrin Woodward.

Nobody succeeds alone. Everyone needs a helping hand from time to time.

When George Washington walked through Valley Forge the winter of 1777 to begin the Continental Army’s 6-month encampment, I imaging that, privately, his confidence was extremely tested. What a breath of fresh air it must have been to greet Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, onetime staff member of Frederick the Great (King of Prussia), carrying an endorsement from Benjamin Franklin. One could argue a divine providence in the timing of events. With von Steuben’s help, the Continental Army made it through the winter with revived spirit and enhanced fighting skill to successfully engage the British Army at the Battle of Monmouth in New Jersey!

There were a few rays of hope during the Team’s 6-month ‘Valley Forge”. The first came with a Circuit Court ruling that upheld the constitutional right of assembly, allowing the Team to gather for meetings and seminars. The second ray of hope (and this would prove later to be the seed idea to the Life Leadership business) is that the Team could market a generic version of their audio CDs and books for general personal and professional development purposes. All references to Quixtar must be (happily) removed. Members that attained a certain volume of materials could still be paid a bonus from Team, based upon volume discounting. This gave birth to the idea that the personal and professional development found within the content produced by Team leaders could turn into a stand-alone marketable product.

Uncommon Sacrifices

What happened next was, in my opinion, one of the most generous moves in business history that I have ever heard about. In addition, almost nobody knew about this amazing sacrifice (until now). Orrin Woodward, Chris Brady and Tim Marks (and their spouses) were already under legal and financial attack by a billion-dollar company; they were getting stabbed in the back every other month by people they thought were friends, they were targeted by countless critics blaming them for everything going wrong, they were all getting interrogated in courtrooms after being forced to regularly read mountains of legal briefs, and if that wasn’t enough, they were forced to endure weeks at a time without seeing family and loved ones … did they reach their breaking point? No, instead, they did something truly amazing. In the middle of all of this turmoil, they agreed to surrender 100% of their Team bonuses for the purpose of subsidizing the incomes of the Team leaders that were camped with them in this valley. What an amazing move! What is even more amazing is this continued for 18 months while all three shouldered all of the aforementioned workload, attacks and immense stress. History, many times, recalls great deeds of men long after they did them. The great deeds of the original leaders of the Team must not go un-noticed any longer. No wonder they command so much social capital!

Part 5 – Orrin Woodward, Chris Brady, Social Capital and the Test of True Friendships

“We few, we happy few, we Band of Brothers. For he today that sheds his blood with me, shall be my brother..” – William Shakespeare from King Henry V

Social Capital

True leadership only shines in difficult times. There are many points in history where only a strong leader who is unwavering in their principles will be followed. To a non-leader, this type of leader is, at best an anomaly and at worsts a pariah. George Washington was chosen to lead the Revolutionary War and the Presidency not because of how tall he was, how wealthy he was nor where he went to school. He was chosen to lead because he was a man of iron principle, integrity and honor. This type of person attracts and builds something called social capital.

When the Quixtar letters were sent out, I can only imagine that the owners and legal staff concluded that they had financial capital to use as leverage to force members to capitulate to their demands. I imagine that Quixtar staff and legal council suggesting “nobody would dare give up their income and their entire business that they worked so hard for, just to follow Orrin and Chris into the unknown!” The rule in the Quixtar Member Contract was that you could not join another networking company for 6 months – so who would be crazy enough to give up their income and potentially start from scratch after 6 months? This is were Quixtar brass missed it – they were all about to witness the true power of social capital. Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady followed the judges TRO completely (phones and computers were seized for discovery by the lawyers, and proved in court there were no traces of down-line communication whatsoever). Not even the lawyers could understand why, in the days and weeks that followed, an avalanche of resignation letters were submitted to Quixtar. What began as a few member resignations led to dozens, which led to hundreds, which led to many thousands of resignations sent in to Quixtar. It was estimated that, within 60 days, Quixtar had managed to scare away almost $200 million in annual market share and an incalculable amount of potential growth revenue in years to come (full article reference here).

It was argued over and over, “They had to have communicated somehow!” Nope. The fact remains that Orrin and Chris did no such thing. To the mass of Team members who were in the dark, two facts were all that were needed. Fact #1: ‘Orrin and Chris were no longer a part of the Quixtar business.’ Fact #2: ‘Orrin and Chris were (and still are today) men of iron principle and integrity who have served a group of men and women for over a decade. As a result, they have earned a tremendous amount of social capital.’ This is all that was needed for the first wave of Team members to logically conclude that, “if Orrin and Chris are no longer in Quixtar, then I don’t want to be either.” This first wave of resignations to Quixtar was not a blind leap by mindless drones. This was social capital in its finest form. Through deductive reasoning, members could discern the facts concerning the status of Orrin and Chris at that time: (1) they are no longer with Quixtar, (2) they have always had a vision serve a million person team, (3) they have a track record of good character, integrity and service to others, (4) they have always adapted in adversity. Therefore a leader could conclude that there must be another ‘mountain top’ on the other side of this impending ‘valley’. The first wave of resignations led to an exponentially bigger second wave following the same explanation of social capital at other levels within the Team organization. Wave after wave of resignation letters crashed the membership department at Quixtar. Just like a scene out of the stock trading floor in Wall Street when there is panic in the trading markets, I imaging Quixtar staff frantically yelling and scrambling for answers to why, oh why, in a matter of 3 months, did they lose tens of thousands of distributors and a $200 million per year portion of their North American business… The answer is clear looking backwards: Social capital trumped financial capital.

The phenomenon of social capital can only be understood by studying those rare events in history: the Biblical account of David and his Mighty Men, the Greek history of Achilles and his Myrmidons, the original signers of the Declaration of Independence, and the WWII paratroopers of Easy Company portrayed in the movie series Band of Brothers (to name a few examples). It is something that is built and earned over time by adhering to the laws of leadership. Period. In addition, those who don’t have social capital have a very difficult time understanding those who do. Case and point: Quixtar’s next move.

Part 4 – Orrin Woodward and the Team battle a giant.

“William, where are ya going?” “I’m going to pick a fight!” “Well, we didn’t get dressed up for nothing!” -from the movie Braveheart

August, 2007

Stunned from the recent news in June, Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady were still hopeful that the ownership group of Quixtar and Amway would come to their senses. As the buzz grew and the worry thickened, another ‘Boston Tea Party’ seemed imminent. On August 9, 2007, Orrin Woodward, Chris Brady and their legal staff made their last stand at diplomacy. David and Goliath, recreated 3,000 years later, only this showdown takes place in a boardroom in Ada, Michigan. As they stood outside the boardroom, I am sure you could have heard a pin drop. Imagine, theatrically, time slowing down and an intoxicating fog of worry and anticipation filling the corridor. Not a word is said, but thoughts scurry across the front of everyone’s mind “will this approach work?” and a thousand “what if” scenarios preplay through everybody’s mind. Then, imagine a reassuring glance that says, “we said we would do the right thing, no matter what the cost”. “Yup, lets roll”.

They all knew there were only 3 potential outcomes that could happen today (as the wild west shootout music plays in the background of their minds). Outcome #1: There is still time, they could just tuck tail and run. Seriously, both Orrin and Chris had enough money to just wash their hands of this whole mess and walk away from this fight. There is no argument that this option would have simply allowed Amway’s changes to erode their business in the months to come. This option also came with a guaranteed to also destroy the hopes, dreams and livelihoods of the tens of thousands of current Team members. This is what a coward would have done – walk away, or worse, cut a deal. Outcome #2: Maybe the potential resignation of two of Quixtar’s best and brightest leaders would sway the imperial rivalry to change course. Just like in March of 1766, Orrin and Chris must have felt like Ben Franklin in front of the English Parliament, hoping to convince the British Crown that their actions may cause a breach of trust and a possible revolution. Maybe Quixtar would see that Orrin and Chris were using all of the leverage they could muster to come to an amicable solution for all. Unfortunately, just like King George III, the Imperial ownership at Amway was not going to budge, not even for their top marketers. Outcome #3: Orrin and Chris would be forced to sacrifice everything, give their resignation, secede from the union and begin their battle for independence. As history has shown with previous groups who stood up for injustice, this move would surely be followed with threats of litigation and financial ruin for themselves and all of the top leaders who would dare to stand with them. (A minor point of fact: Quixtar staff claims they terminated Orrin and Chris that day; however the fact remains that the notice of resignation letters were handed to Quixtar’s legal staff prior to their announcement of termination. Quixtar later refused to acknowledge this small fact.) This would, just like September of 1768, lead to England sending warships to Boston Harbor to prevent uprising and revolution.

The conference room door opened and the time that seemed so slow just moments ago suddenly lunged everybody forward into a tempest. The corporate titans were not about to be intimidated and, as ego’s ballooned, diplomacy was tossed out the window. The meeting concluded with Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady tendering their resignations. The reply from Quixtar came in the form of a threat and a warning: this is where I imagine a scene from the movie ‘300’ (the famous battle between 300 Spartans and the Persian army in 480 BC) was recreated in the corporate boardroom as Xerxes messenger placed his foot upon the large mahogany conference table across from Orrin and Chris, and threw a string of skulls at Orrin’s feet saying, “Nobody has ever defied us and survived! Look at past rebels – Brig Hart, Ken Stewart, Don Storms, Bo Short, Gerry Betterman, Andy Andrews. None of them survived our wrath of litigation and went on to built another marketing business. Ever!!”

The very next day, as bold as sending warships into a peaceful Boston harbor, Quixtar sends tens of thousands of threatening correspondence, or “ultimatum letters”, to each and every member of Orrin Woodward’s Team organization. These letters demanded the members stop attending all Team events and stop using Team materials to build their network. These letters (and later court documents) showed that Quixtar considered members and their connections to other friends and family members to be private company property. The letters further demanded a written response of allegiance to the current Quixtar (and future Amway) system. If you did not reply within the 2-week deadline, they would automatically terminate the member’s business. Can you imagine being a new person receiving an ultimatum letter like this? Quixtar/Amway certainly does not have to worry about outside forces damaging the company when it seems to be the only company on planet earth that “eats its young”.

The ‘shot heard round the (networking) world’:

Flashback to 1768 – Imagine 2 young fishermen trolling the banks outside of Boston Harbor. Just another day at work, when suddenly, they are caught off guard by the sounds of two large vessels piercing nearby waves. The tall mastheads, ringing warning bells and a well organized crew hustling to ready their ship for port must have been both awe inspiring and frightening to the humble fishermen. As the British Royal Navy began to move their massive ships of war into Boston Harbor, the entire town stopped to wonder why so many ships have arrived? “We couldn’t be under attack by our own sovereign, could we?”

Mid-August 2007

It’s been a couple of days since the meeting between Orrin, Chris and Quixtar brass. The majority of people in the Team organization did not even know that it was even happening. Many of the top leaders were concerned about how the upcoming changes would affect their business, but it has been many days since any communications from Orrin, Chris or any of the top leaders from Team. Complete radio silence (we know now that were immediately served with a court-ordered temporary restraining order (TRO) which forbade them from communicating with their entire Team organization). In fact, the only communication to the Team organization came from Quixtar, in the form of this threatening ultimatum letter. This left everybody wondering and asking “what do we do now?” Call Orrin (no answer). Call Chris (no answer). Call the Team office (no answer). What to do? Fear creeps into the mind. What has happened to the leaders? What will happen to the rest of us? The drama increased with each passing day…

Imagine the average member, sitting at their kitchen table on a sunny Saturday morning. A few months prior, they registered with Quixtar and were excited by the results of build a network with a great group of friends in a teamwork approach taught at their local Team meeting. Now, in one hand, they hold an ultimatum letter from Quixtar. In the other hand, a computer mouse that is scrolling through a fresh blog article from a Quixtar affiliate that reads “Just Go, Team”. This article includes allegations that Quixtar has just terminated its two fastest growing leaders and is happy to see the Team go. Hmmm… It isn’t difficult to imagine, at this very moment, that this member does not have a good feeling about sending a letter swearing allegiance to a company that behaves like this. Whether a member was new or making thousands of dollars in monthly bonuses, the gravity of this point in history weighed heavy on all members.

2005 – 2007

Orrin Woodward was elected to sit on Quixtar’s Independent Business Owner’s (IBO) board of directors. The following year, Chris Brady was elected to serve on the same board. The purpose of the IBO board was to create and maintain synergy between the field marketers and the Quixtar ownership group. These years were filled with tremendous excitement and hope for a bright future. This excitement was based upon the idea that they could have their ideas heard and together forge an amazing future for Quixtar and Team. I imagine that this excitement rivaled the early 1770’s when Thomas Jefferson and George Washington owned a vineyard and an olive tree plantation in partnership with a British royal, The Earl of Dunmore. As exciting as this must have been to Jefferson and Washington, this partnership was not to last, as bigger problems disrupted their capitalistic synergy. In the later 1770’s, many of the selfish actions by the Earl of Dunmore were quickly turning himself into America’s first villian. Shortly after this, Thomas Jefferson (who was an avid reader of history) penned the “Summary View of the Rights of British America”, which highlighted the idea that if the British King does not act in the best interest of the colonialists, that his jurisdiction shall become null and void (whether he liked it or not).

Fast forward back to 2005, with the failing health of the two original founders (Rich Devos and Jay VanAndel), controlling interest was passed down to the next generation of Devos and VanAndel family members … eventually, a new executive staff was in place and the synergy that was enjoyed for decades was suddenly found wanton. It seemed as if the concept that Thomas Jefferson wrote about in 1774 (A Summary View of the Rights of British America) was starting to be abused once more by a corporate group that did not study or understand true leadership.

Stemming from his career as an Engineer and extensive training in the field of continuous improvement, Orrin Woodward could not sit idle and let problems fester. Both Orrin and Chris agreed that somebody had to stand in the gap and try to help fix the problems that were starting to hurt business growth in the field. It is said that ‘courage’ is not the absence of fear, but action in spite of fear. Wanting to drive continuous improvement for all, Orrin acted courageously and decided to risk the status quo and call out the ‘elephant in the room’. He gracefully drafted an ‘Olive Branch’ letter to one of the new billionaire owners, Doug Devos, pointing out some ways to improve Quixtar for everybody, ownership included. (You can read the full letter at Dan Hawkins blog). The two main points that were highlighted were retail price of Quixtar products in the marketplace and the means by which the company subtly began to take extra profits for themselves. It is curious how human nature and history tend to repeat from time to time in the form of greed and ego. There was a hidden form of taxation without representation happening at the corporate level, and nobody had the guts to go straight to the top to call out the elephant in the room – Nobody, that is, until Orrin Woodward arrived with the support of his loyal friend, Chris Brady. Prior to this, both Orrin and Chris often spoke in terms of principles, just like the founders of our nation, encouraging leaders to “do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do, regardless of the cost”. Another historical fact to clear up is this: Just like pre-1770 colonial Americans had no intention of seceding from the British, neither Orrin Woodward nor Chris Brady had and intention of seceding from Quixtar. Ultimately, their hand was forced by an injustice…

June 2007

After a few half-hearted “peace treaties”, corporate ego dictated the next moves by the second-generation ownership of the Devos and VanAndel families. Without warning or asking approval from the IBO board, Quixtar ownership drops 2 bombs. Bomb #1: They are going to reduce commissions on two products without reducing the cost of these products (the two products that The Team sold the most of). It is almost like taking a page out of history, like Imperial Britian imposing a tax mechanism like the Stamp Act or Townshend Act, then daring the people to defy the crown with ships of war sitting in the Boston harbor… Bomb #2: They are eliminating the parent company, Alticor, and merging the Quixtar Company back into the previously separate corporate entity, Amway. Period. No discussion. No deliberation with the field. It seemed like the attitude from the top was ‘we can do it just because. And if you don’t like it, too bad’.

To this day, nobody in the field really knows why these moves were made. Was it a conscious attempt to destroy their North American business? Sure, there were a few well-spun press releases, but none of it makes any sense considering the tremendous growth of the Team organization all of these years. Was the (second-generation) ownership really that oblivious to the negative marketing effects of the Amway name in North America? Either way, it was ‘their way or the highway’.

Part 2 – Orrin Woodward and the Early Years (back in the day!)

(The Story of the most unlikely of friends, building the most unlikely of businesses, starting from the most unlikely of small towns…)

Just as the American story of freedom is filled with hope, sacrifice, providence, thin threads, great deeds, heroes and villains – so is the story of Life Leadership. The formation of America and the formation of Life Leadership are both real-life David and Goliath tales that are equally astonishing and almost unbelievable. Generally speaking, both stories begin with the growth and expansion of a smaller group of people filled with hopes and dreams of a bright future. Next is the part where a larger governing group begins to take advantage of that smaller group. What follows in each story is that the smaller group gets pushed around long enough, then, the smaller group decides to fight back. Eventually, other neighboring parties become impressed with how ‘scrappy’ the underdog is, and they are inspired to join the fight and root for the smaller group’s victory (especially if there is a mutual benefit). In both cases, the outside help could not have come at a better time. Many people would argue that in both cases, if the smaller group did not receive help, the battles would have been lost to the larger group. Now, let us replace generalities with details:

Now that we have reviewed your American History of Independence in Part 1, let me tell you the tale of Orrin Woodward, Chris Brady and a group of men and women that, back in 1999, simply called themselves ‘The Team’. Just like colonial America prior to 1776, the men and women of The Team had no idea that they would be thrust into a similar battle for entrepreneurial independence (ultimately leading to the formation of the Life Leadership Business). For creative flair, feel free to pause your reading and queue up the soundtrack from the movie, Braveheart, before reading further. The historical timeline follows as such:

1993 – Orrin Woodward joins Amway in hopes to get his baseball card collection back. Orrin ends up going to a few meetings, pulling money from his employee 401k fund, and gets started leveraging his initial investment to build a network.

1995 – Chris Brady joins Orrin Woodward’s group as a low-cost, flexible alternative to starting a conventional franchise (in order to escape the corporate ‘rat race’). Chris was, at the time, conducting extensive research in the advantages and disadvantages of all types of enterprises, concluding that Orrin’s plan may just work.

September 1999 – The owner’s of Amway form a shell company called Alticor. This was immediately followed by the formation of a new e-commerce company called Quixtar, separate from Amway, with Alticor owning both divisions separately. Members of Amway are giving the option to leave Amway (and it’s branding) and join the new e-commerce company, Quixtar. (As you can imagine, this helped tremendously with Orrin & Chris’s marketing efforts).

2000 – Following a series of losses in a ‘friendly’ marketing competition, Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady begin to understand the power of ‘social capital’. This led them to create their own training company to help develop leaders within their organization. This was an effort to clear up the confusion of ‘best practices training’ in the industry and increase growth using a strategy later dubbed ‘Team Approach’. Training centered on the fact that new products and new technology were not the key to success in a marketing business; instead, true leadership at the individual level was (and still remains) the key to success in business.

2000-2007 – Unprecedented growth occurred within the Team organization! Many people were very happy and successful in this ‘new world’ of prosperity. The Quixtar executive staff was impressed and the Team enjoyed a period of incredible wealth creation for the entire organization. Furthermore, Orrin Woodward’s organization was repeatedly recognized as the fastest growing organization in all of Quixtar, representing nearly $200 million in total group sales at its peak. Read the following excerpt from Orrin’s article:

The online model fit our young and hungry team perfectly. In fact, from 1999 through 2007, Laurie and I led the fastest growing organization within the whole company. We grew from several hundred to over ten thousand people attending events and our sales increased from a couple hundred thousand dollars to over one hundred million dollars! In addition, many other teams sought our training and started growing resulting in nearly another hundred million dollars in volume. Our training organization, in other words, was responsible for nearly $200 million of Quixtar’s total sales.

The answer is NO – and this article will hopefully explain why. As the Life Leadership organization continues to grow larger, one of the weapons that negative critics may use is to call Life Leadership a “cult”. In most cases, ignorant people who are looking for a derogatory and antagonistic word to use in an argument may use this term. In spite of this, Life Leadership will continue to grow and make waves. We live in a world seems to be falling further into the shadow of evil – where the masses rename the word “sin” into politically correct terms like “a person’s choice”, “ a mistake” or “morally dyslexic”. In contrast to this, Life Leadership is simply working to help lead people back to Biblical truth by way of marketplace ministry. This will continue to create a disparity as time goes on.

Cult vs. Culture

The purpose of a cult is to indirectly enslave people for a twisted purpose. In contrast, Life Leadership aims to help people learn how to be free from enslavement, especially enslavement to debt. Consider the following verses:

1 Corinthians 7:23 “You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.”

Proverbs 22:7 “The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.”

This is what Life Leadership is all about – helping people first to not be slaves to poor thinking, then apply new thinking so that people can live freer, more abundant lives. There is no hidden agenda, no plans to exploit or take advantage of people. People are free to be involved in any capacity that they choose.

If you attend a live event, what you will find is not a cult, but instead a positive culture. A grace filled environment where success principles are shared but not mandated. Where positive attitudes are rampant and there is a positive pressure to improve your thinking through the reading of good books. Once you attend a seminar, your will see how laughable the “cult” label is and how this new “culture” can be a blessing to everybody. How exciting!

History of the term “cult”

From the beginning when God created Man, He included in our being the need to worship. It is hard-wired in all of us. The problem is when we are not taught properly to worship God and his son, Jesus Christ; we will always fill the void by worshiping something, anything else – because we long to do so. Early organizations in history have taken advantage of this to manipulate, exploit or harm groups of people in very subtle ways. This is the real history of a “cult” as we think of them today.

The word “cult” was first used in the early 17th century, borrowed from the Frenchculte, and from Latincultus (worship). It was originally used as a neutral term, not to describe a group of fanatic religionists, but to describe the different acts of worship or religious ceremonies. In the early 19th century, the term was used to negatively describe “excess devotion” to something. By the 1930’s, the term “cult” was termed “heresy” and the term “cultist” acquired the connotation of Satanism. Today, the term “cult” can be defined many ways:

“Cult” Definition #1:

A relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister.

“Cult” Definition #2:

A belief system that claims to have the truth of Christ and salvation but they deny one or more of the core doctrines of the Christian faith.

“Cult” Definition #3:

A belief system that alters the absolute truth of the Bible. A cult always offers an alternate foundation of truth – something separate from the Bible.

Was Life Leadership created to be a cult?

Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady were both raised in lower-middle class families in southeast Michigan. They both worked hard pursuing engineering careers in the automotive field. They did this to raise their families and live a happy life. The problem is that the “secure” corporate world around them was changing. Part of this was because the early to mid-1990’s signaled the end of the industrial age and beginning of the information age. They were disconcerted when they saw how the ladder to corporate success lead to more hours, more time away from family and ultimately more stress. In addition, I am sure it was scary to see how easily their jobs could be taken from them in the ever-changing automotive industry. At this point, they did NOT say to each other, “Hey, I have an idea! Lets start a cult so that we can take advantage of brainwashing other cult members so we can be rich!” No, this is ridiculous! The truth is that they simply looked for opportunities to work for themselves in a business of their own.

How could somebody mistake Life Leadership for a “cult”?

Over time, Orrin and Chris decided that, instead of being selfish, they would create the first ever business model where there are no special deal for themselves or any of the other founders. They created a model that would compensate a person solely based upon their performance, even to the point that a new person’s income could surpass anybody’s income, including their own. This is not only fair, but VERY ATTRACTIVE to people looking for an opportunity to be compensated based upon performance only. No politics, no bureaucracy, no “good-ol’-boys” club, just performance! So when you do something this cool, it is going to upset the status quo in the business world. Competitors can either adapt or throw stones. Because Orrin Woodward, Chris Brady and the other founders have put together something this attractive, they naturally have a large following of people who speak well of them through edification. This type of edification, to the outside observer, could be misinterpreted, especially if what they see and read everyday is negative and full of gossip and back-biting.

Ways to identify a real “cult”:

Who do they identify their source of Authority?

What do they believe about the trinity?

What do they believe about Salvation?

They oppose critical thinking and discourage people from thinking for themselves.

They dishonor the family unit.

They isolate members and penalize them for leaving the group.

They seek loyalty to a leader above loyalty to Jesus.

They cross biblical boundaries of behavior.

They encourage separation from church.

They emphasize special revelations that contradict Scripture.

They group lavishes the leader with un-earned luxury.

They seek to alter personality and, in some cases, create a new name for certain members.

Life Leadership passes all 12 of these tests with flying colors. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post where we will analyze this list point by point.

Chris Brady is Founder, CEO and Creative Director of the Life Leadership business. Although Chris takes his duties and responsibilities very serious, he does not take himself too serious. What I mean is that Chris is one of the most likeable and joy-filled guys that you would ever have the privilege of meeting. Chris is seriously fun to listen to, with his quick wit and the ability to turn a funny tale into a fantastic lesson. Along with Orrin Woodward, Chris is an extremely well read individual who teaches people to dig into books as if they contained priceless buried treasure inside. Most importantly, Chris has a passion to lead people to his savior, Jesus Christ, and to empower other people to become a force for good in this fallen world.

The Vision of Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward

With Chris’s impressive professional credentials (see below), solid personal character and his drive towards excellence in all areas of life, I am appalled that anybody could write anything derogatory online. Both Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward have dedicated their lives to the building of something magnificent that will provide some of the greatest opportunities that the masses will ever be exposed to. They are fighting to keep the American Dream alive and well – and not just in America, but all over the world. They are creating a company that can equip the masses to excel in their personal and professional lives. At the same time, they are creating opportunities for people who want their ladder of success to not be limited by a corporate pay scale by creating a compensation plan that has no ceiling. They are both revolutionizing the home-based industry.

Here is a short excerpt from Chris as he indirectly addresses critics to Life Leadership in the classy and witty style that he does everything else with:

Enter the Antagonists (Who Would Dare Say LIFE Leadership is a Scam)

Opposed to our revolutionizing the industry is, of course, anyone who wants things to stay as they are in any of the above four trends. As the saying goes, “When you set out to change the world, you’d better beware of those who already run it!” This includes entrenched competitors and those who work for them or prosper by their position, who are, as is only natural, threatened by what we are attempting to achieve. What results is the most natural situation in which two different sides are battling it out in the marketplace for proof that their way of doing things is best. As is so wonderful in the capitalistic system (as Orrin Woodward has written about on numerous occasions) the customer gets to decide. We respect our competitors of all stripes and sizes and look forward to the challenge they provide on the playing field of free enterprise!

To the Antagonists, big and small: If you have a better way to make the world a better place, then go do it. Otherwise, shut up!

Short summary of Chris Brady’s professional credentials:

Chris Brady is founder, CEO, and Creative Director of LIFE Leadership. He also serves as the Executive Publisher of Obstaclés Press and is a New York Times bestselling author, speaker, humorist, and businessman. Chris has sold over a million copies of his books in 6 different languages.